The Omnicom-IPG Merger: Doubling Down on the Past as the Post-Digital Future Emerges
Scale: The Industrial Revolution’s Zombie Idea
It’s hard to overstate the achievements of the Industrial Revolution. Once upon a time, we tilled fields by hand and cobbled together shoes one pair at a time. Then came the steam engine, assembly lines, and centralized factories that belched smoke and churned out goods by the cartload. This seismic shift ushered in an era where scale became the holy grail: bigger factories, bigger machines, and bigger monopolies. Efficiency, productivity, and uniformity became the mantras of the day. Scale was, in its time, an impressive feat—akin to a child discovering they can stack blocks higher by building a bigger base.
The recent Omnicom-IPG merger may appear as a power move at first glance, but it’s a relic of old-world thinking in a post-digital landscape. Instead of embracing distributed innovation, transparent collaboration, and the boundless potential of AI and blockchain, this mega-consolidation doubles down on centralized control. Clients who crave agility, creativity, and real-time adaptability will find themselves sidelined by legacy hierarchies and opaque “efficiencies.” For forward-thinking players like ReMotive and those who champion decentralized growth, it’s a moment to step up, not retreat.
But here’s the rub: that model, which once revolutionized production, has long been a dull relic clinging to life in an age that has moved on. Today, scale is often little more than a corporate comfort blanket—a cozy excuse to justify stagnant thinking and bloated hierarchies. It’s like showing off your VHS collection in a world where people stream movies directly into their contact lenses. Sure, it still “works” in some archaic sense, but it looks increasingly ridiculous as the rest of the world races ahead on more agile, networked, and technology-driven models.
Post-Digital kills the status-quo
The announcement of a mega-merger between Omnicom and Interpublic Group (IPG) has sent tremors through the advertising world, reflecting a familiar pattern: when in doubt, merge. Two traditional holding companies coalesce into an even larger conglomerate, touting “synergies” and “unmatched scale” as their defense against turbulent market forces. The narrative is predictable—greater bargaining power, bulk buying clout, and a combined suite of services that promise clients more, more, and more. Yet for those of us who have been operating in the real, post-digital world, this move is as revealing as it is regressive. It’s a classical play to protect the status quo precisely at a time when the industry demands agility, open collaboration, and decentralized innovation.
Centralization Is Not a Strategy, It’s a Retreat
In reality, merging two legacy giants doesn’t solve the fundamental issues plaguing the old advertising model. Instead, it accentuates them. While the new behemoth will no doubt boast staggering billings and global reach, it comes at the cost of flexibility, speed, and the capacity to meaningfully adopt technologies that are remapping the industry—AI and blockchain among them. The holding group approach was forged in the pre-digital era, thriving on scale, negotiated media discounts, and tightly held vendor relationships. But in a world where computational power is accessible to all, where no-code platforms democratize tech development, and where open-source communities solve complex problems faster than any centralized R&D team ever could, scale for scale’s sake looks increasingly like a relic.
Using AI as a Scapegoat for Change They Cannot Absorb
The old guard frames the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence as something mysterious and uncontrollable, as if it were a chaotic force distorting the market. But the truth is far simpler: AI has matured—so have blockchain protocols, distributed ledgers, and decentralized organizations—and these collectively demand new operational philosophies. Forward-thinking agencies no longer rely solely on closed, proprietary systems. Instead, they embrace AI-driven strategies backed by transparent, immutable ledgers that ensure accountability. They adopt asynchronous workflows and tap into global talent pools orchestrated through smart contracts, not rigid hierarchical org charts.
The holding companies find themselves ill-equipped for this environment. Rather than adapt, they blame “complexity” and “unknown ripple effects of AI.” This narrative tries to justify consolidation, hinting that bigger is better when dealing with a future they can’t quite fathom. In doing so, they cast AI as both threat and excuse—anything but a neutral technology tool that forward-leaning organizations have already mastered for competitive advantage.
The Decentralized Renaissance They Cannot Buy
What truly troubles traditional players is that the future they fear is not something they can just acquire. Decentralized protocols—like those championed by projects such as Lightchain.io—show how AI can be integrated directly with blockchain-based infrastructures. These provide scalability, privacy, trust, and an egalitarian model of innovation. Instead of one entity controlling development, countless contributors and validators ensure that no single party owns the innovation pipeline. This breaks from the top-down model entirely. You can’t just “buy” your way into this ecosystem; you must participate, contribute, and evolve in lockstep with the community.
By contrast, Omnicom and IPG’s merger doubles down on a closed model of ownership and central control. They are essentially betting on scarcity and scale, when the real currency of the post-digital era is decentralization and openness. The concentration of AI development, media relationships, and creative resources into fewer hands not only raises transparency and accountability issues but also risks alienating clients who have come to expect nimble, ethical, and tailored solutions.
Why This Is a Turning Point for Independent and Post-Digital Agencies
To legacy independents that emulate the holding company model—offering the same hierarchical structures and closed systems—this merger poses yet another existential challenge. But to truly post-digital agencies like ReMotive Media, it’s a golden opportunity. Founded by industry veterans who saw these converging forces years ago, we built ReMotive to thrive in this exact environment. Our model values distributed knowledge, collaborative innovation, and platform-agnostic solutions. We are fluent in the tools that so befuddle the old guard—no-code integrations, open-source frameworks, blockchain-based contracts, AI-driven media optimization—because we have been using them for years, not scrambling to understand them as they upend our business models.
Clients disenchanted by giant holding companies—who fear becoming just another line on a colossal balance sheet—find in ReMotive a partner that treats them like innovators, not leftovers. We welcome the complexity that scares others. We leverage it to deliver strategies that are flexible, data-driven, and radically transparent. Our agnosticism toward legacy supply chains and proprietary walled gardens frees us to pick the best technologies, talent, and partners for each client’s unique needs.
The Post-Digital Age Demands Courage, Not Consolidation
The Omnicom-IPG merger is exactly the type of defensive maneuver that the post-digital era exposes as shortsighted. Instead of using their resources to fundamentally reinvent their approach, they’ve chosen to get bigger—clinging to the illusion that size can contain the forces of decentralization, distributed collaboration, and open innovation. In reality, this move only underscores their inability to adapt. It will become increasingly evident that the models of the past, no matter how large they grow, cannot keep pace with a future defined by fluid ecosystems and empowered communities.
For ReMotive Media, this is validation of everything we’ve stood for: a Post-Digital vision that prioritizes adaptability, transparency, and collaboration over brute-force scale. The market will continue to shift, and as it does, the rigid structures of holding groups will groan under the strain, while nimble players who embrace tomorrow’s tools today will flourish.
This merger may be hailed by some as a masterstroke of strategic acumen. History, however, will likely record it as one last attempt to freeze a market in flux—an expensive gamble that succeeded only in proving how far the incumbents have drifted from the evolving realities of our industry.
The Post-Digital Era is not just an evolution; it’s a transformation that redefines how businesses connect with consumers and build sustainable growth. How enterprises are perceived outside and how they behave in-house are now equally important, as marketing, advertising, and media mirror any company's internal culture and values, and people are well-trained in spotting fakeness. Open-source technology is one of the foundations of this transformation, offering a path toward more ethical, adaptable, and cost-effective marketing and media solutions.
We live in an era where micro-factories and distributed production networks can spin up overnight, where open-source communities can out-innovate an army of managers, and where custom solutions can be delivered at the drop of a hat—without renting a warehouse the size of Luxembourg. Scale’s original purpose was to make us faster, cheaper, and better at meeting demand. But let’s face it: the notion that “bigger is inherently better” is about as relevant today as bringing a coal-powered steam locomotive to a Formula One race.
So as we admire the Industrial Revolution’s grand achievements—its iconic factories and mass-produced marvels—let’s also acknowledge that the relentless pursuit of scale has become the business world’s walking, talking anachronism. The sooner we give it a proper send-off, the sooner we can embrace a more nuanced, efficient, and human-centric way of working—one that doesn’t require the world’s largest shoe factory just to produce a half-decent pair of sneakers.
By moving beyond proprietary tools, black boxes, the “old tales of scale”, whilst hoping to become bigger and badder than the walled gardens contaminating the connected world, and trying to embrace the new realities and opportunities of data science, blockchain, and open-source, companies can lead in the Post-Digital Era, aligning their strategies with modern values and consumer expectations.
Sadly, this merger is a far cry from any pf this, and, in my opinion, has no real mid or long term value for anyone, although of course in the short term, a lot of money will be saved (for the holding co), and a lot of jobs lost (with AI to blame), brands and clients will get even less bang for their buck, and todays most talented people will run as far away as they can from an industry who values, presentialism, rigid ways of working, and size over ideas, agility, reward based systems and purpose led KPIs above and beyonf pure profit.
Alex Lawton
Founder @ LA PIPA IS LA PIPA
alex.lawton@remotivemedia.com
